STA takes $200 off of ANY FLIGHT until 11AM on Friday

by Grant Martin on

It took us a bit of time to suss out the details, but we’ve now verified it. STA Travel has is having an epic sale on airfares. Basically, they’re offering $200 off of any airplane ticket you can find, provided you book it through an STA agent over the phone or in person.

Here’s how it works: From 11AM on Thursday, July 1 to 11AM on Friday, July 2nd, STA has been offering the rebate on international fares by region. From 11AM to 5PM it was from the US to Europe. From 5 – 11PM it is (was) to South and Central America. From 11PM – 5AM it’s to Africa and the Middle East and from 5AM – 11AM Asia and the Pacific will be on sale.

All you need to do is find your ideal itinerary, take it to an agent (or call them@ 800.781.4040) and then ask them to book the ticket with the discount.

Dubious? We were too, so this afternoon we took a $323 fare from Chicago to Bogota, Colombia to the STA Travel near Gadling Labs in Evanston, IL and asked to book the flight. After ten minutes of typing the travel agent was NOT able to find the same fare that Kayak found — however, she found a similar, $392 fare that was bookable. Subtracting the $200 promo and adding a $30 booking fee, we were thus presented with a bill for $222.

For a ticket from Chicago to Colombia, that’s not bad.

The caveat? There appear to be only a certain number of rebates available for each block of time. Right now the Latin America fares are already sold out, and with more people in the know, Africa/Middle East and Asia fares may go quick. Our advice is to do your research early and pick out ideal flights. When the time comes, call the STA desk and ask for specific flights — if you get the right agent he or she will make magic happen.

Ryanair pushing ahead with $6 standing room only seats and paid bathrooms

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, Ryanair first mentioned their concept for several rows of standing only seats. The idea back then was to install special standing seats and offer them for a reduced fee.

The new seating innovation has not been implemented yet, but Michael O’Leary wants everyone to know that he is still very serious about it, and hopes to pay for the new seats with proceeds from the paid bathrooms he also hopes to install soon.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Ryanair, it is that even though most of their ideas sound like crackpot ways to generate some free PR, they take their silly ideas quite seriously.

Ryanair knows that there is virtually no limit to the inconveniences passengers will put up with in exchange for crazy low airfares. When your flight is just a few hours out of a one week vacation, the savings on airfare leave you with more money for food, booze and tacky souvenirs.

With the new seats, between 40 and 50 extra passengers can be loaded on the planes, pushing things to the absolute maximum the plane is approved to carry. Still, the big question is whether you’d be willing to pay an insanely low fare in exchange for a standing seat on a flight of several hours.

%Poll-48899%

[Image from AFP/Getty Images]

Accor Hotels launches online game; winner wins trip to Europe

by Melanie Nayer on

We love a good game of hide and seek at Gadling, so when we heard about Accor Hotels’ new online game called “Around the World Photo Hunt” we had to investigate further. Seems the social media managers at the hotel are working to build brand awareness in North America by launching an online game where players win points by spotting the differences on two seemingly identical photos from a selection of Accor Hotels’ properties located around the world.

The grand prize winner will receive a 12-night European vacation for two adults to Paris, Berlin and Barcelona. Accor Hotels partnered with US Airways and Rail Europe to co-sponsor the 12-night European vacation that includes roundtrip airfare, first class train tickets, luxury Accor Hotel accommodations and daily breakfast.

Don’t fret game-goers, other prizes will be handed out including a SoBed™ package, digital cameras, flat screen TVs, DVD Home Theaters, and more. In addition, a $50 MasterCard gift card will be awarded randomly to one lucky player every day until July 23rd.

The online game will run from June 24th – July 23rd.

Bargain hunting in Madrid’s famous Rastro market

by Sean McLachlan on


Shopping is a fun part of any trip, yet sometimes it’s hard to find something truly unique, something that tells a bit about the culture but stands out from what 10,000 other tourists bought that year. Finding a good souvenir can be a real problem.

In Madrid, you’ll never have that problem. At El Rastro, a giant open-air market that happens every Sunday from about 7am to 2:30pm, you can find pretty much anything. Part swap meet, part flea market, part bargain emporium for cheap imports, El Rastro has something for everyone, and piles of things you’d think nobody would ever buy.

Take this fish-shaped candle holder, for example. It’s hard to imagine someone taking this home, but it’s got a certain lure that made me almost cave in, because it’s so bizarre it deserves a home. Then there’s that collection of door locks behind it. The box contains about thirty of them, and only one still has its key. Is there a market for locks with no key? I do know someone who collects antique keys, so is this just the flip side? Do these people meet somewhere and try to reunite old locks with their long-lost keys?

It’s hard to get out of El Rastro without buying something and just the experience of wandering through the crowd looking at all the cultural detritus is a great way to learn about Spain. El Rastro has been voted by Gadling as one of the ten great markets of the world. Gadling also named it as one of the top ten places to have your pocket picked, so be careful. Madrid’s pickpockets are some of the best in the world, and they loooooove El Rastro.

Armed with a camera, a small amount of cash stuffed deep into a buttoned-down pocket, and no other valuables whatsoever, I headed out to explore, accompanied by Madrid’s leading ghost story writer. Somehow that felt appropriate.

%Gallery-96401%The most popular way for madrileños to visit El Rastro is to go to Metro stop Tirso de Molina and head downhill. This Sunday the square was filled with communist, socialist, and anarchist tables selling mementos of Spain’s Second Republic, as well as books, punk CDs, and lots of pins, stickers, patches, etc. to help you flash your leftist identity. Working our way downhill we ran a gauntlet of cheap imported kitchenware, tools, jeans, and heavy metal t-shirts. Not a bad hunting ground if you need to pick up some disposable clothes to wear on your trip, but nothing that really screams “Spain.” Except for the Chinese-made and very flammable-looking flamenco costumes for little girls.

El Rastro has no core and no real boundaries. Stalls sprawl along side streets and antique/junk shops line both sides of some avenues. Our path was the usual madrileño meander with no set course except a general direction downhill. The further you go down, the more interesting it becomes. Soon the open-air Walmart is replaced by sketches by local artists, handmade crafts, dusty old toys, and tattered movie posters. A circle of old men rummaged through a table of battered VHS tapes. A long table filled with old carpenter’s tools tempted for DIY fans. People selling stamp collections stood next to stalls piled high with used porn and old martial arts magazines.

The pop culture stuff is some of the most interesting. Here you can see what those old men with the VHS tapes consumed when they were kids–comic books with gaudy covers, Mexican pulp novels, and pennants for half-forgotten football (soccer) championships. There’s something very revealing about rummaging through another culture’s nostalgia. Forty years ago Spain was a fascist dictatorship with a struggling economy. Yet Spain was still Spain, and people liked to have a good time. The paper might be cheap, the print a bit blurry, but I could imagine Spanish kids devouring the latest issue of Coyote or Esther as eagerly as we read Superman or Archie. Come summer they’d head to the beach blaring Spanish pop music on that bright green plastic transistor radio, kicking that old soccer ball in the days when it was still inflated.

Now we had reached the bottom of the hill, where some real antiques (and a whole lot of junk) was being peddled. A cluster of stalls did a brisk trade selling ten year-old laptops with cigarette burns, rickety old chairs, and a collection of fine mirrors and glassware that had graced a some stately home a century ago but now were in desperate need of some love and attention. Every price is open to haggling. The prices for cheaper stuff tend to be less flexible, but it’s always worth a try and haggling is part of the fun. Some people get quite animated, showing Spain’s Arab heritage. At times it felt like I was in the bazaar of Cairo or Damascus.

So what did we buy? Remarkably neither of us spent more than 12 euros ($15), although we could have easily spent ten times that.

Me:
A collection of three classic films on DVD that was originally part of a newspaper promotion
La sangrientas battallas de Montecasino (part of a WWII series that came every week in a newspaper back in the Eighties)
Buffalo Bill contra Los Fumadores de Opio (a translation of an c.1900 American dime novel, translated & reprinted c.1930)
An imitation Zippo adorned with a symbol of the Spanish Republic

Andrew:
Two dirty old lampshades he plans to use for an art project.

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday morning?

Travel industry insider Q&A: Stewart Chiron, The Cruise Guy

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Stewart Chiron, also known as The Cruise Guy, has turned his passion for cruising into a remarkable career. In a way, his is sort of the ultimate travel industry dream story. Kid identifies travel obsession, pursues it, refines it, and then is lucky enough to devote his professional life to sharing his well-honed expertise. For cruising veterans, Chiron is a trusted source of information. For those of us who are less experienced as cruisers, The Cruise Guy’s insights are possibly even more invaluable.

Q: How did you develop your cruise expertise?

A: My cruise history began 23 years ago when I took a one-day cruise to the Bahamas. I didn’t like it for a day, and didn’t understand why people would do it for a whole week. In between my first and second years of college, I took a summer job with the very first cruise-only agency in the United States, The Cruise Line, Inc. It was very exciting as the opportunities were endless. It took almost 14 months after that to get me on my first real cruise. From then on I was hooked!

Back in 1989, cruising was far off the radar for most vacationers. I devoured the cruise brochures and quickly learned what consumers were really interested in. I developed a keen understanding of cruise trends, strategies and marketing. Over time, my research-based, objective perspectives allowed me to become one of the most quoted cruise industry experts, sought out as a regular contributor by leading news organizations on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines.

Q: How would you recommend that people go about choosing a cruise?

A: Buying a cruise is like buying a car. It’s an investment of money and time. You’ll be on these ships for three, four, or seven nights, or even longer, so you need to make the right decision.

Being on the wrong ship and paying the wrong price can easily ruin a vacation! Determine your desired destination and do your homework before calling and then booking.

Q: Are you bullish about the future of cruising for the short-term and the long-term?

A: The cruise industry is quite resilient. Ships sail at full capacity. The only question is at what price.

The cruising demographic is expanding. Higher airfares, fuel costs, hotels, and meals are prompting many to give cruising a chance. People who would never previously have considered a cruise are discovering the many advantages of cruising.

The cruise industry will continue to succeed in both the near and long term, in part thanks to the amazing new ships and destinations that are continually being introduced. The industry is also flexible. If an itinerary isn’t working, ships can be redeployed to more profitable destinations.

Q: How is cruising going to change in the next decade or two? Are there regions of the world where you expect to see particularly strong growth in routes, ports, and local demand for cruising?

A: Europe will continue to be strong for the foreseeable future, with more and more cities warming up to cruising. The South Pacific including Australia/New Zealand has large growth potential, as does Asia.

Main Caribbean departure points in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana will need to develop new ports-of-call to continue to drive interest. Ports like Grand Cayman must build piers or risk losing even more business.

As far as ships are concerned, it comes down to innovation and development. It wouldn’t surprise me if Royal Caribbean introduced dolphins or killer whales in their Aqua Theater pools aboard their Oasis Class ships! The possibilities are mesmerizing!

Q: Give us five helpful, concrete tips for finding an inexpensive cruise.

A: 1. Research but don’t book online. There are many deals, including specials for residents, military, and seniors, that may not be available online. You’ll never be sure you’re getting the very best deal, cabin or ship. Non-published deals are often better. Make the phone call.

2. Use a travel agent. There isn’t one advantage to booking directly with a cruise line. You’ll never receive the professional and objective advice that an experienced cruise agent can provide. A true cruise specialist can match you with the best ship and deal. Beware of cruise line and agency “order takers,” who are often neither well informed nor experienced! Ask for their qualifications.

3. Be flexible with your dates. Cruise prices often vary by sailing date. If possible, check a few dates before and after your desired sailing date to ensure maximum savings. Plan on booking your own air to ensure best price and schedule unless air is free/subsidized by the cruise line.

4. Book early. Book your cruise as far in advance as possible. Some of the most desired specialty itineraries such as Europe and Alaska require advance bookings to avoid paying higher air and cruise fares. The difference can easily come to thousands of dollars.

5. Consider travel insurance. A cruise is an investment of money and time and should be protected. Besides providing protection against cancellation, policies also cover interruption and travel delay, and are worth serious consideration.

Q: How many cruises have you taken? What was the best cruise among these? What about the most unusual?

A: I’ve now cruised well over 150 times and experienced almost every ship. Someone has to do it!

Some of my favorite cruise destinations are Hawaii, the Mediterranean, Alaska and the Caribbean.

Sailing to the Galapagos Islands may be one the most unusual cruise itineraries around. I found Celebrity’s Xpedition to be an excellent choice for the Galapagos.

Q: Do you recommend that people sail on new ships right after they’ve launched?

A: It’s great to be the first, but sailing within the first year of a new generation of ships can be very expensive. Wait until a generation’s second ship arrives as pricing on both will be reduced.